Marker



April 1939- M. MENACHOF 2,155,992

' MARKER Filed Jan. 5, 1939 INVENTOR.

MTCHELL Ms/v/IcHoF M g a220 ATTORNEYIS- Patented Apr. 25, 1939 UNITEDSTATES PATENT OFFiCE Application January 5,

4 Claims.

This invention relates to markers and While it is of generalapplication, I have illustrated it particularly in connection withmarkers such as are used to indicate distances along the edges of afootball playing field. It is conventional to provide markers atlive andten yard intervals to indicate the distance from the goal line.

These markers are desirable not only from the point of view of thespectators who are thus enabled to determine the exact point at whichthe ball rests after each play, but also to the players and officialsthemselves who are thus better able to determine their playing strategy.These markers in the past have been objectionable for the reason that ithas been not uncommon for the players to be tackled and thrown against amarker and be more or less seriously injured thereby. Furthermore, byvirtue of the safety features above mentioned, the markers may be set upright on the sidelines, rather than ten or more feet away, as is thepresent practice.

It is therefore an object of my invention to provide a marker which willbe neat in appearance and which will be resilient so that it will yieldupon contact with a player thereby preventing injury to the player andalso preventing damage to the marker. It is another object of myinvention to provide such a device which will be simple and relativelyinexpensive to manufacture, and which will be capable of withstandingthe rough usage to which such devices are ordinarily subjected.

These and other objects of my invention which I will describe in moredetail hereinafter or which will be apparent upon a further study of thespecification, I accomplish by that construction and arrangement ofparts of which I shall now describe an exemplary embodiment. Referenceis made to the drawing forming a part hereof and in which:

Figure 1 is an elevational view of a marker according to my invention.

Figure 2 is a detail View in separation of the upper end of the springand the lower end of the marker.

Figure 3 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 1.

Briefly in the practice of my invention I provide a marker consisting ofa fairly light flexible wire frame, the frame being padded with arelatively soft material such as rubber and bearing a sheet of somematerial, preferably rubber, upon which indicia are provided to indicateyardage. The indicia may be painted or stenciled or they may 'becomposed of strips of a similar 1939, Serial No. 249,460

material of a contrasting color mounted on said sheet of rubber. Themarker further consists of a member adapted to be driven into the groundand provided with means whereby it will not turn in the ground, and aresilient element interposed 5 betweenthe frame and the. portion driveninto the ground.

I have shown in the drawing a generally rectangular frame formed from apiece of relatively light flexible wire l6. As best seen in Figure 3,the wire is is surrounded by a relatively soft rubber element H whichmay be formed as indicated at l2 to hold the sheet rubber member IS. Thenumerals l4 and I5 may be painted directly upon the member l3 or theymay consist of strips of rubber or the like adhesively fastened thereto.The ends of the member ID are downwardly turned in parallel relation asindicated at Ma and are fixed into a plug member best seen in Figure 2,and generally indicated at I6.

The other portion of my marker comprises a tightly coiled, relativeheavy spring member I! having a relatively long straight end which maybe flattened as indicated at I8, and be provided with a bend as shown,so that when it is driven into the ground it will resist twisting orturning movement. It will be noted that preferably the member I 8 isdriven into the ground to the point where a spring member I! at itslower end almost rests upon the ground. The device is assembled bysimply screwing the plug l6 into the coil spring I l which will resultin a very tight fit so that it is substantially impossible to unscrewthe member I6 from, the spring 11.

When a tightly wound spring such as is indicated at I I is bent whileone end thereof is fixed,

a slight untwisting rotation will be noted at the other end. I availmyself of this phenomenon in connection with the present invention sothat if by chance the marker were hit almost directly from the right orleft, as seen in Figure 1, it will twist slightly so that if the playershould fall upon it, it will tend to fall fiat on the ground rather thanfall on its own plane and hit the ground upon the corner of the marker.Thus not only is injury to the player prevented but damage to the markeris also eliminated.

While the spring member may be a simple helical spring tightly wound andthe plug !5 may be provided with a simple helical thread, I prefer, aswill be clear from a close study of Figure 2, to distort the springslightly in an axial direction, as for example, by exerting pressurealong the lines indicated by the arrows A and B, so that theconvolutions of the spring on one side will be steeper than they wouldordinarily be. I also prefer to distort the thread in the plug IS. Acasual study of Figure 2 would indicate that the member I6 is providedwith a double thread, but this is not the case. side, the thread wouldbe relatively flat since there is but one single continuous thread.

I have found that if the spring is thus distorted so that it is nottruly helical and if the thread on the plug is likewise formed in adistorted manner the advantages of my marker will be more apparent. Itstwisting action comes about more easily and I find, furthermore, thatwhen the marker is not being stressed in any way it tends to remain moresolidly in its upright position. It

will be understood, however, that the advantages are obtained in aconsiderable degree with a simple helical tightly wound spring and aplug having a simple helical thread.

It will be understood that modifications may be made in the constructionof my marker and that I do not intend to limit myself to the particularmaterial from which the parts are made and that the padding of the framel may be accomplished in a number of ways. Likewise the numerals may beapplied to the marker in a wide variety of ways.

Viewed from the reverse Having now fully described my invention what Iclaim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A marker composed of two parts, one com prising a member bearingindicia and terminating in an externally threaded plug and the othercomprising a tightly wound coil spring having a relatively long axialextension adapted to be driven into the ground, said two parts beingassembled by screwing said plug into said spring.

2. A marker composed of two parts, one of said parts comprising arelatively light wire frame, said frame being padded and carrying anindicia bearing sheet of material, the two ends of the wire'from whichsaid frame is made terminating in an externally threaded plug.

3. A marker according to claim 1 in which said coil spring member isaxially distorted so that the convolutions thereof on one side are moresteeply disposed than on the other and in which the thread on said plugis similarly distorted.

4. A marker according to claim 1 in which said spring is a tightly woundhelical spring and in which said plug has a corresponding helicalthread.

MITCHELL MENACHOF.

